//------------------------------//
// Rescue 
// Story: Ponybots and Kingdom Keys 
// by SoraPiroB 
//------------------------------//

	We felt the building shake and raced outside to check it out. But once we reached the front door we saw that thousands of Heartless had swarmed around the building.

“Well, this is going to be annoying,” I sighed and kicked open the door, and Heartless began flooding in. Applejack stepped forward and launched a grenade at the door and widened the opening, allowing even more Heartless to enter.

“This is a horrible rescue,” the girl said, as she watched the darkness swarming around us. She didn't seem worried in the least, and occasionally kicked and swung her Keyblade at any Heartless that wandered too close.

“We know what we're doing,” I said, and walked slowly around the room, swinging my Keyblade as I went. Rarity took Applejack's position in front of the door and swiveled the miniguns mounted on her back towards the opening. Digging in her hooves, she opened fire, each bullet leaving a glowing trail as it zipped through the air. The Heartless fell quickly, and a gap quickly appeared in the swirling darkness. Slowly, she walked forward, and Applejack followed close behind, every so often firing grenades through the gap.

I made my way over to the girl who had trapped a Heartless under her foot and was slowly stabbing it repeatedly with the end of her Keyblade. After a quick stab and twist of her wrist, the Heartless expired and she watched the released heart float into the sky with an awed expression.

“That seemed a bit cruel,” I commented, and led her toward the ponybots, who had made it through the door and were now fighting their way towards the street.

With a shrug she swept past me and cast a blizzard spell at a group of Heartless gathered in a corner, freezing them solid. Walking over to the chunk of ice, she tapped it lightly with her Keyblade and smiled as it exploded into snow. “I'm a cruel person,” she said, and followed in the ponies' wake. Frowning, I followed, wondering if it was a good idea to have rescued her.

Back at base, Twilight and Pinkie were watching over Shining Armor and Cadence, talking about the crashed Gummi ship. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had flown over to the wreckage to investigate and search for survivors.

“What do you think could have happened?” Cadence asked, as she inspected the stump of Shining Armor's detached limb. He had detached the leg at the stifle joint, and a few wires were dangling from the stump. The sounds of the motors in his leg could be heard clearly as he waved the leg about.

“I'm not sure, but it certainly isn't good,” Twilight sighed, and watched her brother and foal-sitter together. She was tired of the war she and her friends found themselves in, but it wasn't anything that could be avoided. The darkness had overtaken her world quickly, despite the Princesses' attempt to shield it. During the final days before their world fell, Celestia had made a difficult decision. She called in her faithful student and her friends, along with her sister Luna, Princess Cadence, and Shining armor. Using ancient magic that only Celestia knew about, she extracted all of their hearts and encased them in a special shell that would repel the Heartless. Then, she placed the hearts within the casket holding the Elements of Harmony, and fired it towards the stars in hopes that it would land in a safer world.

The casket fell here to Earth, which was had already been overrun by the darkness but was still fighting back. I found it months ago, when it landed in a horse barn not far where I lived. Being a Keyblade wielder, I was able to communicate with the hearts directly, and learned of their world's fate. I built robot bodies for each of them, and was surprised when they expressed that they wished to fight against the darkness. After a bit of experimentation and tweaking, with input from each of them, I made battle-ready bodies that fit their tastes.

Rainbow Dash landed lightly next to the crashed Gummi ship, and walked around the outside, looking for an entrance. She found a large hole near the underside of the ship, which had burn marks all around it. Fluttershy landed next to her and poked her head in, and gasped with surprise. Inside there was a young woman, with her arms wrapped around a gravely injured man about the same age as her. She was sobbing lightly, stroking the man's back, who was taking deep, stuttering breaths.

“Are you okay?” Fluttershy asked, and gently nuzzled the woman's arm. The woman flinched and held the man tighter, then nodded.

“H-He's hurt,” she said, then lifted the man's shirt to reveal a bloody gash in his side. She lowered the shirt and kissed his forehead. Rainbow nodded to Fluttershy and flew back to Twilight's group, while Fluttershy stayed behind and watched over the survivors.

My group had finally reached the street and we raced back to base, eager to get out of the city and back home. We saw Rainbow fly over us, and she swooped down to join us. “We found a crashed ship, and there are survivors,” she said, and pointed with her wing toward the direction she had just came from. She eyed the girl we had found, and tilted her head at the sight of the Keyblade. “Who's she?” she asked.

I shrugged and looked at her. “Who are you?”

She smirked and swung her Keyblade in my direction. I reacted and blocked with my own, and she took the opportunity to grab my wrist and twist it behind my back. I was surprised and pulled away, and she let me go. “Finally, you ask. I'm Nyx. Nice to meet you.” With a grin, she gave a bow, and kept walking. With a growl, I went after her, and grabbed her arm. She pulled away and brought her Keyblade up to my throat. “Don't. Touch. Me.” she said, and turned away.

“Hey! You don't do that to Luka!” Rainbow yelled, and jumped in front of her. Nyx looked at her for a moment, then walked past her. Rainbow kept trying to stop her, and finally held out her wings to surround the girl. “Listen to me when I'm talking to you!” Nyx rolled her eyes and ducked under the wings, and kept walking. With a frustrated yell, RD flew up into the air and flew towards base.

“Now listen here little missy. We've rescued you, so the least you could do was show a bit of gratitude,” Applejack said, as she watched Rainbow fly off.

“Fine. Thanks for the rescue,” Nyx said, and gave a small curtsy. We walked back to base in silence, and met up with the rest of the group. When we got back, Rainbow growled at Nyx but remained silent. The way the others looked at Nyx told me that she had already told them of her encounter.

With a sigh, I turned to Shining Armor. “So? Did you find her?” Shining Armor nodded and opened his chest again, revealing the two hearts. “Good. So, we should all go to that crashed ship and pick up the survivors. I assume that Fluttershy is with them?” I asked, and the others nodded. We all made our way to the wreckage, and met Fluttershy outside. “How are they doing?” I asked.

Fluttershy pawed the ground at her feet, working up the courage to speak. After months of being together, Fluttershy was still shy around me. After a minute, she spoke up. “Um, well, they're asleep, but the man's hurt, and I don't know if he'll pull through.”

With a sigh, I nodded.”We'll have to get him home quick if he's going to have any chance. RD is going to have to fly him home ahead of us. Kay should be able to take care of him.” I stepped into the wreck and gently shook the woman awake. She woke with a start and summoned a Keyblade and waved it in my direction. Surprised, I stepped back and summoned my own Keyblade. Her eyes grew wide and looked at me, and put hers down.

“You're a Key-wielder?”she asked, and looked down at the man, whose head was in her lap.

I nodded and pulled a tiny bottle from my pocket, then pointed at him. “May I?” I asked gently, and she nodded and lifted his shirt. I inspected the gash closely and poured the potion over the wound, and muttered a spell that closed the skin over the injury. “The wound is still there, but at least he won't bleed out,” I said, and she nodded, reassured. I offered my hand to her. “My name's Luka,” I said.

“Kairi,” she replied, and shook my hand. “And he's Sora,” she said softly, and gently stroked  the man's hair. He stirred slightly at the mention of his name, but did not awaken.

“Kairi, we're going to have to get Sora healed quickly if he's going to survive. So we need to fly him to our base to get healed. Is that alright?” I asked. She nodded, and I picked Sora up off of the ground. I carried him over to Rainbow Dash and strapped him to her back. With a nod, she jumped up in the air and was gone in seconds. I turned and saw Kairi watch them fly off, and after a minute or two after they were beyond our sight she straightened up and nodded to me. Nodding back, I inspected our group.

“Alright everyone, time to go home,” I said, and led the way home, the sun setting behind us.